So, if Obama gets the credit for "ending the war in Iraq"...

On December 14, 2008, U.S. President George W. Bush signed the security pact with Iraq. In his fourth and final trip to Iraq, the president appeared with Iraq's prime minister and said more work is to be done.<61> During the press conference discussing the signing of the pact<62> with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in his palace in the heavily fortified Green Zone, President Bush dodged two shoes thrown at him from the audience. The man who threw his shoes, Muntadhar al-Zaidi, an Iraqi journalist with Egypt-based al-Baghdadia television network, could be heard yelling in Arabic: "This is a farewell ... you dog!" When throwing his second shoe, al-Zaidi could be heard yelling: "This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq!”<63> While pinned on the ground by security personnel, he screamed: "You killed the Iraqis!"<64> As the man’s screaming could be heard outside, Bush said “That’s what people do in a free society, draw attention to themselves."

A referendum on the pact between the United States and Iraq will be held in Iraq before 30 July 2009.<69> If the referendum result is against the SOFA, the Iraqi government will give notice to end the agreement and US troops will be required to leave Iraq within one year - by July 2010.<70> "If the Iraqi people reject the pact in the referendum ... the government of Iraq will be committed, according to the law, to the result of the referendum and will convey this will to the American administration. The pact will be annulled", Iraq's Sunni Vice-President Tareq al-Hashemi said. The deal can be terminated if either signatory gives the other side a year's notice.<71>

White House spokesman Dana Perino said in December 2008 that "if there is a national referendum, Iraq is a sovereign country, and they could decide to do lots of different things with it." "But I think that the fact that their representative leadership has signed this agreement today, that they recognize that they are going to continue to need our help for the next little while", she continued.<72>

"We do understand that the Iraqi military is not going to get built out in the three years. We do need many more years. It might be 10 years," Iraqi government spokesman Ali al Dabbagh said in December 2008. "We expected something odd," said Alaa Maki, a member of a Sunni Muslim political bloc that's forced Maliki to put the security agreement before voters as a referendum next year. "That is the reason we pushed for the referendum", he said. Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish member of parliament who also voted for the pact, said "for us to think about extending the U.S. presence by planning another (security agreement) is premature."<73> "What was announced about the Iraqi forces needing 10 years in order to be ready is only his personal point of view and it doesn't represent the opinion of the Iraqi government," Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's office said in a written statement. "I think that al-Dabbagh's comments are the first sign that nobody is going to adhere to the timetables and the U.S. soldiers are staying in Iraq beyond the 2011 date," said Sadrist MP Nasir al-Saadi.<74>

Thousands of Iraqi have gathered weekly after Friday prayers and shouted anti-US and anti-Israeli slogans protesting the security pact between Baghdad and Washington. A protester said that despite the approval of the Interim Security pact, the Iraqi people would break it in a referendum next year.<75>

In reversal, Bush to accept Iraq withdrawal timetable

(AFP) – Aug 22, 2008

CRAWFORD, Texas (AFP) — From "surrender date" to "aspirational time horizon," US President George W. Bush seemed poised Friday to seal a reversal in Iraq policy by accepting a target withdrawal date.

But the White House poured cold water on Iraqi claims that Washington and Baghdad had reached a deal that would see all US combat troops out of Iraqi cities by next June and US forces gone from the war-torn country by late 2011.

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The White House, which had in the past rejected firm withdrawal timetables as setting a "surrender date," now says that conditions on the ground allow for "aspirational time horizons" for bringing US troops home.

As recently as May 2007, Bush had defiantly declared: "It makes no sense to tell the enemy when you plan to start withdrawing. All the terrorists would have to do is mark their calendars and gather their strength."

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